Some old Photos for your enjoyment

[Pistolero]

How about this one for a heck of a 'shotgun'? Look at the cannister shot. I'd guess that each subcaliber
ball is about 4" in diam, and you can see that it is stacked just like 00 buckshot, three rows of three, for
a nine round "000000000 buck" or something.

Deadly weapons, finally rifled muskets and no real improvement in medical care for the previous 2 or 3 centuries.



The more I look, I think those are ships guns, dismounted and put on temporary wooden firing mounts.

The only info I have is a Robert Fenton photo. No location or date. But I would call it Civil War for sure. Some sort
of hasty defensive works using )captured?) ships guns converted to land use, is my bet. third from the left in front has
his arm in a sling, under his coat.

Bill

 

[Pistolero]

This young man made a a big splash out west about 8 years after the end of the civil war.

 

[Intheshop]

Looks like just an old mutt to me? But am sure somebody loved him.

 

[Bret4207]

Theres no solving societal problems on a website, but sometimes blowing off a little steam leaves us in a slightly better mood!

What struck me in the cannon photo is all that hand dug berm, with all the officers standing around looking brave and distinguished while the poor enlisted schlubs that moved hundreds, if not thousands, of yards of dirt are no where to be seen. While a good officer is a joy to behold and worth cherishing, the enlisted man in me knows those guys never lifted a shovel for a single second!

While I know extremely little about guns like that, I have to wonder how they intended to reload them and if those rather light frameworks were supposed to handle the recoil. I wonder if they weren't the "last defense" if the Americans in gray broke through the lines?

 

[JWFilips]

Well Bill,
Since Memorial Day will be coming up a quick search on shorpy.com gave me this:

The Gray and the gray. "Confederate veteran reunion, Washington, 1917." National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

 

[fiver]

they were over it and were just considered veterans of a war by then.

I see those cannons are on wheels and on a platform facing down, I would imagine they let them roll back under recoil then loaded and rolled them forward again similar to how they done it on a ship.

 

[462]

Custer was quite fond of dogs.

 

[JWFilips]

Here is another neat one from shorpy.com:

October 1864. Petersburg, Virginia. "Mechanics of 1st Division, 9th Army Corps." Wet plate glass negative, photographer unknown.

 

[Pistolero]

Bingo, 462. I was just clicking through a bunch of "Civil War" photos and my wife came by and, being also
a history buff, stopped and we clicked through and chatted about the photos. When this one came up, it was
part of a much larger group, maybe 10 people. I said, "Hey, that's Custer when he was young." She disagreed,
and I went looking for some info, since the larger group version had no names associated with it. Then found
this one, a cut out from the larger image, and it said it was Custer, which I was pretty certain of. In any case, he
was a crazy/brave Col and then brevet General in the Civil War, but got in over his head at the Little Big Horn.
Up until then, the whole issue with fighting Indians had been getting them cornered so they didn't slip away.
In that case he 'surrounded' at least 5,000 with a few hundred troops. OOPS. And the cavalry had limited ammo
on their person, and saddle bags, and relatively quickly ran out. One note got out, to bring up the pack train, which
had more ammo.

And yes, I have read that he liked dogs. Me, too.

Those glass plate negatives are often 8x8" or similar size, in those huge view cameras. Makes for a fabulously
detailed, sharp image which can be magnified greatly and still show details. Effectively probably a hundreds of
thousands of pixels on a side. Today's usual digital images are maybe 3-6,000 pixels on a side.

Bill

 

[JWFilips]

Here is another one for you Bill:

Circa 1864-65. "Powder monkey by gun of U.S.S. New Hampshire, Federal depot ship off Charleston, South Carolina." Wet plate glass negative.

 

[Pistolero]

Looking closer, fiver, I think there may be small diameter wheels to run up the wooden track, and I think the
large "wagon wheel" is actually a handwheel attached to one wheel to let them roll the gun back and forward
as needed. Referring to the one with the cannister shot.

Looking at the 'powder monkey' photo,
Look at the rope needed to stop that gun in recoil! And the block and tackle, now all lashed up and
secured nicely, to run the gun back out, one on each side. Fine looking jackscrew for elevation setting.
Look at the size of the timber used to make the carriage. Probably oak or walnut for strength.

The kid looks pretty proud of himself. An important part of the gun crew at a very young age.

And lots of cutlasses, racked and ready to repel boarders.

Bill

 

[462]

Having read a book or two about the Battle of the Little Big Horn, I'm fairly familiar with what happened, but by no means an expert.

Seven years ago, our vacation included a trip to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone. In between we visited the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. Seeing the lay of the land, it was easy for me to imagine the battle as it unfolded.

I'm glad I wasn't a participant, but knowing that I was born 100-years too late, and taking a lot of things into consideration it's very possible that I could have been.

 

[david s]

Those "shotguns" are set up to pivot right or left in some fashion I haven't figured out. The guns weight may be some what neutral where the rear pivot wheels are as long as the gun is in the forward position. But I cant figure out the pivot.

 

[fiver]

t appears there is another large wagon type wheel on the other side.
they look like they would just barely clear the ramp there , but would for sure drop off that hill if they went too far.
but it looks like there is just enough room there to roll back behind the rampart to get a ram rod and more stuff down the barrel.
there could be a smaller set of wheels to allow for more distance, but I don't see a way to pivot left or right.
just up/down and let the spread cover the field.

 

[david s]

Then why the three boards on the ground to the back of the carriage and the rear wheels at 90ish degrees?

 

[fiver]

ah yeah I missed the wheels behind that guy's sword I was trying to see what was on the one in the back round.
there must be a pivot point right under where that one guy is sitting with his arms folded.

 

[david s]

As Pistolero stated the front "wagon wheels are for bringing the gun back into battery, weather by rope or iron chain. I think he's also correct about them having been Naval guns. I think the "buckshot" loads were for bringing down the mast and rigging. And it's hard to tell how far back the second gun is in the photo but it may be even larger.

 

[Pistolero]

Yes. Naval guns have no provision for correction right and left, they shoot "as they bear", and that is a literal
naval command of the day, "Fire as they bear, Mr. Wilson." would come from the captain, and he would
pass it down the line and the gunner on each gun would be watching out their own port and you'd get
rippling fire at longer range, and they had to time the roll of the ship, too. At really close range,
when they would all bear together, they fired a full broadside of all guns at the same time.

I believe the "wagon wheels" are handwheels, driving much smaller actual wheels resting on the wooden rails. The
big wheels are just handles for manually rolling the guns back and forth, they don't actually roll on anything.

In a normal fortress mount they would be mounted on a central pivot, and could be swung around to bear
on different targets, plus elevation adjustment. IMO, this is some sort of a hasty defense setup, and used either
guns stripped from a damage gunboat or ship, or from a captured gunboat or ship. Using what you have access to,
even if not perfect for the job. And MAYBE those big muzzles looking over the berm would be intimidation enough to
keep them from actually attacking, not knowing that you couldn't slew them.

Look at the gun the powder monkey is standing in front of. Note that there is only provision for elevation change.
You steered the muzzle with the helm of the ship.

Bill

 

[JWFilips]

Ah A new one on shorpy.com Fist time I saw it!

100 years ago saw the first trans-Atlantic flight, and it wasn’t Lindbergh’s. A giant Navy seaplane flew from Queens to the Azores in 1919, eight years before the Spirit of St. Louis. It took three weeks. It wasn’t nonstop. — N.Y. Times

May 1919. "The NC-4 Curtiss flying boat, designed by Glenn Curtiss, at Rockaway Beach, Long Island, New York. The NC-4 was the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as part of the U.S. Navy transatlantic flight attempt." 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service.

 

[JWFilips]

Before We leave artillery: Not sure if you folks have ever seen my little girl, Ginger!


Photo Text was to promote a small rural Museum I used to volunteer at!
I was their resident 18th Century Gunsmith! I had a lot of fun during that time especially when we has school tours!
Near Halloween They had candle lantern Ghost walk tours on the grounds.
I used to wait until a group gathered on the main green in the dark ( My gunshop was across the creek in the woods) a nice large wadded blank load used to scare the "bejeppers" out of them! It became the hit of the tours!